Attachment Styles and Daddy Day Care

Psychology Basis

An attachment is an intense emotional tie between two individuals. Used to describe parent/child relationships.

There are four styles of attachment◦ Secure Attachment: The child prefers the caregiver but is ok

to explore and is comfortable around other people. The parent is loving, caring, and affectionate.

◦ Insecure-Avoidant: The child does not prefer mother to stranger. The parent is uncaring and does not show much interest in the child.

◦ Insecure-resistant: The child is clingy and seeks constant reassurance. The parent is very inconsistent.

◦ Insecure-disorganized: The child is often disoriented and shows a lack of coherency. The parent is neglectful, withdrawn, and in many cases abusive.

Attachment Styles

In the 1970’s Mary Ainsworth created the “strange situation” experiment. In the experiment she brought at mother and child into a room with toys and then had the mother leave. She documented the child’s reaction to his or her mother leaving the room.

The Strange Situation Experiment

Types of Attachment in the Strange Situation

Type Securely Attached

InsecureAvoidant

InsecureResistant

Disorganized/ Disoriented

Mother Departs

Mild protest

No distress

Massive Protest

Dazed & confused

Mother Returns

Positive reunion

No reunion

Negative Reunion

Dazed & confused

Parent Behavior

Loving, warm & sensitive

Uncaring & rejecting; often don’t respond to child’s needs

Inconsistent in child care; often not affectionate

Often neglect or physically abuse their children

Media

Daddy Day Care

Charlie and Phil both work in the natural foods division in a big food company.

They both get fired because their new cereal, Veggie-O’s, are unsuccessful.

Then they open a daycare center.

CharliePhil

Connection

On the first day several mothers drop their children off at daddy day care.

Each child has a different reaction to being left by their mother, demonstrating the different styles of attachment.

The children's reactions were similar to those of the children in the “Strange Situation” experiment.

Connection

Nicky is dropped off at the daycare and he was happy.

He does not protest too much when his mother leaves.

But he is happy to seeher when they are reunited.

Connection

Nicky

Nicky’s mother leaves him saying, “Love you Nicky”

She supports his independent hobbies

Nicky his an example of a secure attachment.◦ He did not have a big problem leaving his mother.◦ He was happy when his mother came to pick him

up.◦ His mother is loving and warm.

Connection/Validity

Crispin is dropped off by his self-centered mother.

He does not care when she leaves and does not really care much when she comes back.

Connection

Crispin

His mother asks, “Is there an early drop off?”

She also leaves him there for an hour longer thank intended.

Crispin is an example of an insecure-avoidant attachment.◦ There is no distress when left.◦ There is no happy reunion.◦ Crispin’s mother is unresponsive to his needs and

shows very little interest in him.

Connection/Validity

When Dylan is dropped off he throws a fit because he does not want to be left by his mother.

He cannot be soothed and flails.

Connection

Dylan

His mother informs Charlie and Phil that “She had just stopped breast feeding”.

But then she tells them that she has been so busy and because of a divorce.

She went from coddling him to not having very much time for him because of other commitments.

Dylan is an example of insecure-resistant attachment.◦ When his mother leaves it is dramatic.◦ It does not show them reuniting◦ His mother’s parenting is inconsistent

Connection/Validity

The writers of Daddy Day Care used the different attachment styles to show how different all of the children where.

They successfully showed extremes of parenting styles and how children attach to caregivers.

My Take

Lecture notes/book

www.wikipedia.com for information about Daddy Day Care

References